


Last Victim

by katriona_subasa



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-12
Updated: 2014-08-12
Packaged: 2018-02-12 21:56:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2126004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katriona_subasa/pseuds/katriona_subasa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Nathaniel goes down to his Calling, he meets someone unexpected in the last hours. Oneshot, dark.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Last Victim

He's battered and broken, but that's to be expected. After all, this is his last dance. His glorified suicide before the Taint transformed him into a ghoul, unable to live and unable to die. Really, he should've laid down for his final sleep a while ago, but he had realized he was close to a broodmother's lair and decided to kill her.

So, he drags his bleeding body over rocks and corpses, making his slow way to her as she screams and writhes, throwing acid to kill him. Everything about the place suggests she's a more recent one, within the last fifty years. He thinks she might've been pretty, when she was human. A noble even, because of how smooth her skin looks even through years of grime, and a strong one.

He's at her base and begins to climb to her head, just as he was taught. One last strike, with a knife because he's long since ran out of arrows, and then he is finally done. He'll finally die and be rid of the pain and… and all thoughts freeze and shatter as he sees the broodmother's face. Sees her beautiful eyes and recognizes them. Oh, he knows them so, so well.

"…No…" The word nearly strangles him as he reaches out to touch her, to confirm he's not seeing things. But he's not. Oh, Maker, he's not. The daughter of the Couslands, the tomboy princess of Highever, his first love… her body had never been found after the Blight, but all had assumed she'd died with her family that day. But no, she must've escaped. Escaped, and then dragged into a fate far, far worse than death.

"I'm sorry…" The words hurt to say, but he can't stop them. Just like he can't stop the tears flowing down his cheeks. He doesn't have the strength to stop anything. "I'm so sorry." She bares her teeth, as if she's going to bite him in a desperate bid for life. Because the darkspawn had broken and transformed her into something that did nothing else. "He… he paid…" His father had destroyed so much, and now he is looking at the last victim. He remembers how she'd told him how scared she was about being forced to marry and do nothing but bear children until she died, and wants to scream at the Maker for making her fears come true. "He paid for everything."

She freezes, as if she hears him. Understands him. Knows him. He takes advantage to inflict the fatal blow with all the strength he has left. The last thing he does… free the last victim of his treacherous father. It's an even better death than he could've imagined.

As he collapses, and everything turns black, he thinks she says his name. "Nathaniel."


End file.
